I got there about noon and it sounds like I missed a few folks as well, but met Max (Run-em) and James (with SunnyinTX). The weather was a little steamy (93 degrees with dew point 75) but we were fortunate to have a good breeze and slight overcast, which made it very comfortable.

With a wide assortment of years and models, it was a lot of fun to see. Some that I remember: 170DS, 190SL, 280SL, 360SEC (rare), 300SD, 300SDL, 300TD, E55 AMG, CLK55, S600,and examples from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's, there were others but several folks took off before I got a chance to see all of them. Definitely worth the trip to see, for the first time, some of those older models.

__________________
Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

Geez, I didn't leave until a little after 1:00 but I never saw you guys. Dang.......

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Hey, Sam! If you'd told John you were "SD Blue" on the Mercedes Shop Forum, he'd have yelled for me, and I'd have limped over. [As for the name, no harm, no foul. You were close -- it's one of those one-syllable "J" names! -- but I gotta make sure everyone here knows I haven't changed partners, which is NOT an option!!]

Meanwhile, Max (Run'Em) sent me a note this morning looking for your contact info -- he thinks he can help you out on the spring issues you were talking about with him & John. Why don't you send him a PM?

Later --

Sunny

__________________
Anthracite 1980 300D -- 64k original miles with a new engine, on the road again!
Silver 300D -- second owner, Sunny's old baby, Ilse, 210 miles,
Having to thin the herd….
Silver 1983 300SD -- second owner, 325k miles
Gold 1981 300D -- well-traveled, solid little car
Beige 1984 300D -- 292k miles, grease machine, parting out
Seafoam green 1981 300SD -- 250k, windshield frame damage
too many assorted w123 & w126 cars, parts cars, and extras

For my part i also missed everybody as well: I got there at 1000 and left at 1200 to go pick up my kid from saturday school. We definitively need to get a diesel get-together... Let invite that gentleman with the 1953 170DS....

__________________
------------------------------------------
Aquilae non capunt muscas! (Eagles don't hunt flies!)


1979 300SD Black/Black MBtex239000mi
1983 300TD euro-NA. White/Olive Cloth-MBtex 201000mi. Fleet car of the USA embassy in Morocco
1983 240D Labrador Blue/Blue MBtex 161000mi

I wondered about you! And now that I look at your "stable", how come you didn't bring your SD last October? We gotta get our schedules coordinated (and put John in charge of mine!!!!)! This "passing at Park Place" like passing in the night is NOT what we want....

I'll second that, and host it again, if you guys want (the garage is ever so much better!). If you can find a location in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, you only have to move us, instead of all of you. Though our BBQ guy will miss you all, but especially Roy! (Roy will not be able to join us again until fall, more's the pity...)

Yeah......think he'd let us test drive it?

Let's get together -- time to crawl around under the hood and the chassis again!!! But soon, because oily and dirty AND sweaty is not really that much fun!

If we're not going to dig into the workings, we can wait for Htownbenzoboy's Centerville gather or, if we don't want to go that far, just have a short road trip/restaurant rendevous a la MBCA. Or we could horrify JimmyL's wife, descend on their home, and replace that danged trailing arm of his!!! We're up for whatever. And whenever, with a little notice.

Sunny

__________________
Anthracite 1980 300D -- 64k original miles with a new engine, on the road again!
Silver 300D -- second owner, Sunny's old baby, Ilse, 210 miles,
Having to thin the herd….
Silver 1983 300SD -- second owner, 325k miles
Gold 1981 300D -- well-traveled, solid little car
Beige 1984 300D -- 292k miles, grease machine, parting out
Seafoam green 1981 300SD -- 250k, windshield frame damage
too many assorted w123 & w126 cars, parts cars, and extras

My gathering will be either the last Saturday in July or the first Saturday in August, so ya'll can plan around that.

__________________
'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

At the rate fuel costs are rising, I'm not sure how many of us from up here will be able to afford to "go for a drive" by then!

Anyone from here who shows up either has a well in their backyard, a sudden lottery win, or is burning some fuel alternative. Down there, you might be able to at least raid a refinery, not so for us.

__________________
Anthracite 1980 300D -- 64k original miles with a new engine, on the road again!
Silver 300D -- second owner, Sunny's old baby, Ilse, 210 miles,
Having to thin the herd….
Silver 1983 300SD -- second owner, 325k miles
Gold 1981 300D -- well-traveled, solid little car
Beige 1984 300D -- 292k miles, grease machine, parting out
Seafoam green 1981 300SD -- 250k, windshield frame damage
too many assorted w123 & w126 cars, parts cars, and extras

You were deep in conversation with at least two people and by the time we turned around, we were directed into another train of thought. Sorry about the name hiccup, it must be old-timers trying to sneak up on me.

BTW, Max PM'd me and were checking on a time and date. Maybe Blue Belle will improve her stance a little, rather than looking like she's in need of a fanny lift.

Also, I would be up for a GTG soon, before the Texas heat zaps us.

__________________
Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

Yeah, I keep wondering how much longer our luck will hold. Cooler weather than usual for this time of year, but with it comes violent weather, so I'm not even sure how "lucky" that is! Especially when we're surrounded by a solid canopy of 70'-120' trees, both our 37 acres and the county's roadsides, trees that can -- and do! -- fall down in storms.

Out here in the woods, at least early morning tends to be cool -- we don't have all the city's asphalt, concrete, brick, and other thermal mass holding onto yesterday's heat.

Even so, once it starts hitting the high 90s, I'm NOT going to enjoy working on our cars, and I know we'll make very few optional repairs or improvements until the mercury drops in October or so.

For a GTG, I'd suggest my middle option -- a short road trip ending at an air-conditioned restaurant with a big parking lot we can take over the corner of for a couple of hours. Maybe one with shade trees.

Hmmmm...Pappadeaux's BBQ out off NW Hwy in Dallas has a HUGE carport, and seems to be really slow for Saturday lunch. Does that sound like an option for us? I can check with them when I'm in town next week and see if we can get a "deal", or at least keep them from chasing us off!

Meanwhile, John & I'd be interested in bringing our two SDs for a consult while Blue Belle gets her cosmetic surgery done, if you guys are going to do it fairly soon.

Let us know.

Sunny

__________________
Anthracite 1980 300D -- 64k original miles with a new engine, on the road again!
Silver 300D -- second owner, Sunny's old baby, Ilse, 210 miles,
Having to thin the herd….
Silver 1983 300SD -- second owner, 325k miles
Gold 1981 300D -- well-traveled, solid little car
Beige 1984 300D -- 292k miles, grease machine, parting out
Seafoam green 1981 300SD -- 250k, windshield frame damage
too many assorted w123 & w126 cars, parts cars, and extras

Another nice option for the DFW and Tyler area crowd is to meet at Danny's place in Anna. I very much like last year BBQ/potluck... Anybody has heard from Whiskeydan recently?

__________________
------------------------------------------
Aquilae non capunt muscas! (Eagles don't hunt flies!)


1979 300SD Black/Black MBtex239000mi
1983 300TD euro-NA. White/Olive Cloth-MBtex 201000mi. Fleet car of the USA embassy in Morocco
1983 240D Labrador Blue/Blue MBtex 161000mi

Dan and Tab had a baby a couple months ago, so things have been busy for them. And at Dan's age, it has been even tougher!
It was a great time and they have a great setting for it. Whether it is this year or next I'm sure we'll get to hang out there again. And I'm hoping Tab cooks the same great cajun etouffee as last time........

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

"Carport" at Pappadeaux's?? Sounds good to me. If we have it there and ate there, maybe they wouldn't mind if we brought non-alcoholic beverages* for outside while we have the GTG.

*(we don't want a complication with TABC)

__________________
Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

1. The "Tyler area crowd"? Tell me 'bout this "Tyler area crowd"!!! I wish there WAS a crowd in/near Tyler! OK, so there's probably a crowd of some sort, but they're NOT diesel Benz folk. I can't even get parts in Tyler.

2. Mt. Vernon (where we met last year, and near John & I, Lakeside, and a couple of others) is 70 miles due north of Tyler. If you think JimmyL [in Sunnyvale] is in the Decatur area, then I guess you'd say we're in the 'Tyler area!'

3. Both Mt. Vernon and Tyler are over 100 miles from Dallas.

4. Anna is almost 50 miles north of Dallas, in the Sherman or McKinney area.

We'd be happy to see Dan, Tab, and the newest Dan-Tab production, and partake of what sounded like some fantastic food and drink.

However, since they're not ready and several folks seem to be, looks like we still need a location.

If Pappadeaux's doesn't sound good, how about a picnic (pot-luck) in a park?

All we require is adequate parking, someplace to spread out food, and some shade trees, which leaves lots of options that I can identify in the Dallas area. Oak Cliff is FULL of trees and centrally located -- there's Kidd Springs Park with it's little lake and Japanese gardens (OK, so we're not driving Nissans & Toyotas, but it doesn't mean the garden's not nice!), There's Lake Cliff Park with it's lake and trees and lawns and WPA pavillions, Kiest Park a little further south is HUGE, etc.

Others will know other parts of town and have other suggestions -- post 'em and we'll get somethin' goin'!

Sunny

__________________
Anthracite 1980 300D -- 64k original miles with a new engine, on the road again!
Silver 300D -- second owner, Sunny's old baby, Ilse, 210 miles,
Having to thin the herd….
Silver 1983 300SD -- second owner, 325k miles
Gold 1981 300D -- well-traveled, solid little car
Beige 1984 300D -- 292k miles, grease machine, parting out
Seafoam green 1981 300SD -- 250k, windshield frame damage
too many assorted w123 & w126 cars, parts cars, and extras

Tell me too! Tyler's pretty close to Centerville, one forum member who relocated to the Tyler/Longview area from Houston comes down to the Centerville meets, it's not too far at all.

__________________
'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

I just got a note from the Dallas MBCA pres, and it seems great minds think alike --

Car Show at Pappa's BBQ - Sunday, June 22, 2008

Finally, we're going to have another one of our famous Pappa's BBQ casual Sunday car shows. The idea is simple -

- Go out to your garage or driveway and admire your fancy Mercedes
- Drive your fancy Mercedes to Pappas BBQ, sometime between roughly 11:00 am and 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 22nd
- Park your fancy car near all of the other fancy Mercedes
- Walk around and admire all of the other fancy Mercedes, and meet lots of great people
- Please buy some BBQ when you get hungry - Pappa's BBQ lets us gather in their parking lot at no charge

This is meant to be very casual - show up when you want to, leave when you want to, no entry fee, no model or year restrictions, no judging or prizes. Sometimes it's just more fun that way.

This event is primarily a Mercedes show, but other car clubs are being notified and encouraged to attend. In the past we've found that more is merrier. Please feel free to forward this information to friends, co-workers, and others who might be interested.

If you have any questions, please contact Karl Strand at kstrand@verticalsolutionsconsulting.com or 214-755-8291.

Pappas BBQ is located at:
2231 West Northwest Highway, Dallas, Texas
(Between Loop 12 and I-35/Stemmons Freeway, on the north side of Northwest Highway.
214-956-9038
http://www.pappasbbq.com/

John & I will be in Dallas that night to see Stomp at the Music Hall, so we could probably come in early and do this. Who else is up for it?

__________________
Anthracite 1980 300D -- 64k original miles with a new engine, on the road again!
Silver 300D -- second owner, Sunny's old baby, Ilse, 210 miles,
Having to thin the herd….
Silver 1983 300SD -- second owner, 325k miles
Gold 1981 300D -- well-traveled, solid little car
Beige 1984 300D -- 292k miles, grease machine, parting out
Seafoam green 1981 300SD -- 250k, windshield frame damage
too many assorted w123 & w126 cars, parts cars, and extras